It was a classic confrontation...
On one end of the street stood the bankers, the bondholders, their political supporters, and a cadre of elite legal marksmen.
At the other stood the Unions, the President of the United States, and a handful of distraught and presumably clueless Chrysler executives and members of the board. The President came packing a massive cannon of federal funds.
Outgunned, the bondholders and their posse nonetheless boldly declared they would not budge - would not accept less than their fair share of the booty.
At stake was the massive investment the bondholders had made in the company - could they bear to part with most of it to keep the company alive? They fired a demand for ownership stake in trade for their loss. Missed.
The Unions took aim with concessions in return for a controlling interest. Winged their opposition, taking out their gun arms.
Amidst the hail of proposals and counters, the President stood firm, firing back with the line that everyone must give up something to save the day, but the bondies declared they'd sooner rot in Chapter 11 than capitulate, and so that is what they will do.
On the sidewalk, witness to the duel, sat the out-of-towners, those foreign carpetbaggers - Fiat. Whoever won the day, Fiat would profit. The only smiles in town were theirs.
The townsfolk hung about numbly watching the proceedings. In shock at how it had all come down to this.
Questions flickered across their minds:
Can an American Carmaker be profitable in combination with an Italian company saddled with a legacy of questionable quality (Fix-It-Again-Tony)?
Is it possible for union leaders to also be management? Can the workers be their own bosses?
How many workers will still have jobs?
What kind of masochists will dare to invest?
As the sun set on the Motor City Corral, both sides - bloodied, left the street to the cold night wind. The 'winners' slipped off to the saloon to savor a bitter victory drink and wonder just what they were going to do tomorrow, and the 'losers' disappeared into their sanctums to plot legal end-arounds.
And the factory lines stand immobile.
Goodbye Dodge, Farewell Chrysler, give our regards to Plymouth.
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5 comments:
Well put, very bleak - Seems like the only way out for American manufacturing is for American workers to crash through the bottom on wages. Or devalue the dollar by a factor of three.
Either way, foreigners will own almost everything. it'll just be matter of whether our overseas overlords will want to site their factories here.
Perhaps it's better to have a Euro-company holding the chrysler names. If GM fails, or Ford, those factories won't go to waste — they'll open in a month or so with new names like Zhong Shen,or Chery, or Great Wall Motor... Do we really want to work under and for Communists?
At least Fiat seems to make a very fast motorcycle ;)
I AM depressed about the collapse of our automakers, there's no denying it. But I hope the future isn't quite as dire as you paint it, oldiron. Our President recently stated that he wants to see America 'making things again' not just 'pushing paper'. Amen. Let's hope that vision can be realized.
As for that motorcycle you mention, I worried when Valentino Rossi added FIAT to the team as a sponsor. Bad Karma, I thought. What kind of bad juju would adding Chrysler bring???
Faulty crankshaft position sensors?
Ha!
Hey - a thought just came to me. Do you think Fiat's obvious financial strength (they are thinking about buying GM's Euro operations too) has anything to do with their positive association with World Champion Rossi? Has 'The Doctor' worked his magic and put a shine on the spotty Fiat apple?
I couldn't honestly say whether FIAT backing Yamaha/Rossi has drove consumer demand to push FIAT into a solid position— I just don't swim in their ocean. If they don't have the quality to be Fun, Interesting Auto's Tony, then they won't sell. But associating with The Doctor has to have been a Euro-score just below having FIAT on Beckham's shirt.
Since I'm not a Ford guy, I'll admit that there were times I wished a tiny bit that Harley had associated with Chevy. Must've been worth something to have Reagan sitting on a Harley, or W. hanging at the White House with the Hog brethren.
Also— I like what you and the President said about "making things". I've been jabbering about it for years. Check out this article:
http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/worst-cities-for-jobs.html;_ylc=X3oDMTFpNWtldTZkBF9TAzI3MTYxNDkEX3MDOTc2MjA0NjUEc2VjA2ZwLXRvZGF5BHNsawN3b3JzdC1qb2Jz
Cleveland just doesn't get it. We have to want to work at the dirty job of building things.
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